Anne-Kathrin Keller

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 3 2007 (IPS) – The scene within and outside the United Nations last week was strikingly dissimilar: while more than 140 world leaders were arriving in New York to wine, dine and address the General Assembly, a group of activists was demonstrating outside the U.N. compound for a hunger-free world.
The message conveyed by the activists was clear: the United Nations is fighting a losing battle to fulfill its pledge to halve the number of undernourished people.

According to the U.N. s Food and Agriculture Organisation, the number of hungry people worldwide has increased from 800 million in 2000 to 854 million this year. About 35,000 people die of hunger every day.

World leaders shouldn t just put the issue of hunger on the …

Yolandi Groenewald*

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 26 2007 (IPS) – Waterless or composting toilets are being touted as a promising solution to many of South Africa #39s sanitation woes.
Currently, just under 14 million of the country #39s approximately 48 million citizens lack access to sanitation, and about 200,000 households are reliant on the bucket system. As more demands are placed on national water resources, it appears increasingly unlikely that homes without sanitation will be able to receive the popular flush toilet hence the search for solutions elsewhere.

It is only in the past couple of years that the government listed dry sanitation solutions as an acceptable form of sanitation (and) that various government departments have started to entertain the use of waterless t…

Brad Miller* – IPS/IFEJ

DAVAO CITY, Mindanao, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) – The villagers in the mountains surrounding Davao city are bracing for the day the crop-dusting planes resume dropping fungicide on the banana plantations and the wind blowing toxic fog over their houses, water supply and children.

Children going to school as aerial sprayer flies overhead Credit: IDIS

They fly over early morning, 5 am, says one local farmer, describing the noise and irritating fumes trailing behind the planes as they skim over at tree-top height.

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Constanza Vieira and Diana Cariboni

QUIBDÓ, Colombia, Jan 9 2008 (IPS) – During the high season of popular festivals in Colombia s Chocó region, pregnant girls as young as 13 start flowing in, says a nursing assistant in the obstetrics department at the hospital of the provincial capital, Quibdó.

Transporting building materials by panga . Credit: Jesús Abad Colorado

The fiesta of San Pancho as Saint Francis of Assisi, the city s patron saint, is known is a two-week festival that begins on Sept. 20, with traditional music, abu…

Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 2008 (IPS) – In an attempt to polish his image and advance U.S. interests in the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush is visiting Africa.
Bush s second visit to the continent takes him to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Officials and commentators say the U.S. enjoys high regard in these countries assuring Bush a warm welcome.

While there, Bush will tout the reasons for this goodwill.

The trip will highlight how the United States has partnered closely with the people of Africa to address the challenges of disease, poverty and security, said Stephen Hadley, Bush s national security adviser.

There s more hope in Africa and the American people can be proud that many of our innovative programmes are making …

Dalia Acosta

PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba, Mar 17 2008 (IPS) – Activism against AIDS is uniting a group of transvestites and crossdressers in western Cuba in a project that is going beyond peer education and making inroads into the world of culture.
The time has come to take us seriously. We are in a position to demand our place in society, to contribute to AIDS prevention through our art, and to be respected for our abilities and knowledge, a Cuban transvestite, whose artistic name is that of Mexican actress and singer Ninel Conde, told IPS.

I never felt so sure of myself as I do now. When I used to dress in male clothes, I would always hang my head. Since I put on a pair of high heels, I have felt proud of being who I am. I began to be happy with myself, and I walk down th…

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 28 2008 (IPS) – An ambitious new programme for training health agents to help reduce infant mortality in small rural communities and indigenous villages, launched by one of Argentina s best-known human rights groups, drew many more applicants than the organisers had hoped for.
We expected 500 people to register, but we had to expand the programme to 800, and many health professionals even signed up, Oscar Natalichio, extension secretary at the Popular University of the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, told IPS.

The University was created by the Madres (Mothers) of Plaza de Mayo, a group founded during Argentina s 1976-1983 dictatorship to demand that their sons and daughters, who were disappeared by the military regime, be return…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jun 6 2008 (IPS) – A global human rights lobby slammed Burma s military regime for driving survivors who have endured untold hardship since last month s powerful cyclone into further misery.

Villagers making a shelter for a house in the Poeshangyi village in the Day Da Ye township. Credit: Moe Yu May/IPS

The junta in Burma, or Myanmar, has forced cyclone victims out of temporary shelters, confiscated aid, and…

Aaron Glantz*

SAN FRANCISCO, Jul 4 2008 (IPS) – You could hear the joy in Patrick Campbell s voice as he reflected on U.S. President George W. Bush s signing Monday of a new GI Bill of Rights for veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
It s hard to actually picture that it s done, the legislative director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America told IPS. There are veterans all across this country and in Iraq and Afghanistan who are dreaming bigger dreams now. When we were in Iraq we were always talking about what we were going to do when we got home and I know that now they re over there thinking I can go to any college I want to now. I can go to the best school I can get into not just the school that I can afford .

The new law, which is modeled on th…

Daniela Estrada

MEXICO CITY, Aug 4 2008 (IPS) – It is necessary to evaluate the current global architecture for responding to the AIDS epidemic, move forward with studies on HIV rates, and implement effective prevention strategies, said the experts meeting at the 17th International AIDS Conference, which opened Sunday in Mexico.
The extraordinary mobilisation of economic and human resources against the HIV/AIDS pandemic has borne fruit, but efforts must be stepped up to continue fighting the disease, Mexican expert Jaime Sepúlveda said Monday, one of the plenary speakers at the first session, on the State of the Epidemic .

According to the 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), an estimated 33 million peopl…